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Washington State...
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Washington Counties
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Washington Counties
There are 39 counties in the state of Washington.
Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory and admitted to the Union as the 42nd
state in 1889. The first counties were created from unorganized territory in 1845. |
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King County, Washington
King County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat: Seattle
Year Organized: 1852
Square Miles: 2,126 |
Court House: 516 Third Avenue
County Courthouse
Seattle, WA 98104-2305
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Etymology - Origin of County Name
William Rufus de Vane King, the thirteenth vice president of the United States. (The county was
"renamed" in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1986.)
Demographics:
County QuickFacts:
Census Bureau Quick Facts
History
King County was created 22 December 1852 from Thurston County
King County, located in Western Washington, covers some 2,100 square miles extending from the crest of the
Cascade Range to Puget Sound, including Vashon Island. It is Washington's most populous county and contains its
largest city -- Seattle. It is the commercial center of the Pacific Northwest with public and private enterprises
including Boeing, Costco, Group Health Cooperative, Washington Mutual, Starbucks Coffee Co., Amazon.com, University
of Washington, Microsoft, PACCAR Inc, Weyerhaeuser, Seattle City Light, and the Port of Seattle, which operates the
nation's eighth-largest port as well as Sea-Tac International Airport. King County also retains some 1,500 farms,
most under 50 acres. For millennia the area was home to peaceful, culturally rich, Lushootseed-speaking tribes.
Settlement came in 1852, with lumber, hops, coal, and fish constituting first industries. Historical milestones
include the founding of the University of Washington (1861); the Great Seattle Fire (1889); the Klondike gold rush
that boomed Seattle (1897); the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909); the founding of Seattle City Light (1910)
and the Port of Seattle (1911); construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal (1917) and the Lake Washington
Floating Bridge (1940), the latter resulting in the bourgeoning of Eastside communities; the Century 21 World's Fair
(1962), and the creation of the county-wide agency Metro (1958) to deal first with water quality and later (1972)
with public transit. King County boasts a diverse population, vibrant arts communities and institutions, an
expanding economy, an increasingly green outlook and policy orientation, as well as high housing costs and
traffic-clogged roads.
File 7905: Full Text >
The county was formed out of territory within Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the Oregon Territory
legislature, and was named after Alabama resident William R. King, Vice President under President Franklin Pierce.
Seattle was made the county seat on January 11, 1853.
King County originally extended to the Olympic Peninsula. According to historian Bill Speidel, when peninsular
prohibitionists threatened to shut down Seattle's saloons, Doc Maynard engineered a peninsular independence movement;
King County lost what is now Kitsap County, but preserved its entertainment industry.
County logo, 1969-2007On February 24, 1986, the King County Council passed Council Motion 6461, "setting forth the
historical basis for the 'renaming' of King County in honor of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.". Because only the
state can charter counties, this change was not made official until April 19, 2005, when Washington Governor Christine
Gregoire signed Senate Bill 5332 into law. Due primarily to the advocacy of councilmember Larry Gossett, the County
Council voted on February 27, 2006 to change the county's logo from a royal crown to an image of King's face. On
March 12, 2007, the new logo was unveiled
Geography
King County has nearly twice the land area of the state of Rhode Island. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the
county has a total area of 2,307 square miles (5,974 kmē). It is the 11th largest county in Washington (of 39) by
area. 2,126 square miles (5,506 kmē) of it is land and 180 square miles (467 kmē) of it is water. 7.82% of the total
area is water. The highest point in the county is Mount Daniel at 2426 meters (7,959 feet) above sea level.
King County borders Snohomish County to the north, Kitsap County to the west, Kittitas County to the east, and
Pierce County to the south. It also shares a small border with Chelan County to the northeast. King County includes
Vashon Island and Maury Island in Puget Sound.
Neighboring Counties:
- Snohomish County, Washington - north
- Chelan County, Washington - east/northeast
- Kittitas County, Washington - east/southeast
- Pierce County, Washington - south
- Kitsap County, Washington - west
Cities and Towns:
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- Algona |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Auburn |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Beaux Arts |
town |
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- Bellevue |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Black Diamond |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Bothell |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Burien |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Carnation |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Clyde Hill |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Covington |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Des Moines |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Duvall |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Enumclaw |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Federal Way |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Hunts Point |
town |
Incorporated Area |
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- Issaquah |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Kenmore |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Kent |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Kirkland |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Lake Forest Park |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Maple Valley |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Medina |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Mercer Island |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Mill Creek |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Newcastle |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Normandy Park |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- North Bend |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Pacific |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Redmond |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Renton |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Sammamish |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Seatac |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Seattle
(County Seat) |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Shoreline |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Skykomish |
town |
Incorporated Area |
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- Snoqualmie |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Tukwila |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Woodinville |
city |
Incorporated Area |
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- Yarrow Point |
town |
Incorporated Area |
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
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